Buffalo City Tourism launches new Web site

Buffalo City Tourism has a new look.

The sites are still here: Fort Seward is still home to a giant flag, Frontier Village still houses prairie buildings and the concrete buffalo hasn’t escaped.

What’s new is the way the cyberworld sees the city, said Nina Sneider, director of the Buffalo City Tourism Foundation. The foundation’s redesigned Web site, www. tourjamestown.com, is its own domain, meaning Internet surfers can find the site by typing the address directly into Web browsers instead of linking to the site from another page.

“Our Web site is an important staff member,” Sneider said, saying it works 24/7 without eating, sleeping or taking a vacation.

It’s important to keep the site updated and user friendly, she said, because 82 percent of consumers do online research before they travel.

The site is more casual and interactive, Sneider said, giving people browsing through the site a chance to ask questions and leave feedback. Residents can post to the site too, Sneider said, to give people advice on what to eat, where to stay and what to do.

Tourists like to feel a connection to the places they visit, said Allison Suko, BCTF administrative assistant. Suko, who helped design the site for younger audiences and for those using personal digital assistants, said tourists like personal contact.

To increase interaction and contact, Jamestown-area residents can check out hand-held video cameras to record their experiences at various city and county venues. BCTF would then post the recordings to its Web site.

“Nobody can promote it (Jamestown) better than your local population,” Sneider said.

Although the site has its own domain, it’s still linked from the Web sites of the city, Chamber of Commerce and Cable Services Inc.

Sun reporter Katie Ryan can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by e-mail at kryan@jamestownsun.com

Tags: tourism, internet, website, buffalocity